When the Kanazawa 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art opened in October 2004, it instantly transformed not just Kanazawa's cultural identity but the very way Japan thought about what a museum could be. Designed by SANAA — the Tokyo partnership of Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa — the building is a radical reimagining of the museum as public space.
Unlike conventional museums, with their hierarchical sequences of galleries, the 21st Century Museum is a perfectly circular, entirely transparent building that sits in the heart of Kanazawa like a landed disc. Multiple entrances, all of equal importance, open directly from the surrounding public plaza. Inside, 20 gallery spaces of different heights, some permanent and some temporary, interconnect in ways that encourage visitors to roam freely and encounter art unexpectedly.
The most photographed artwork in Japan: a full-size swimming pool that appears from above to be filled with water. Visitors on the surface walk around what appears to be a pool; visitors below stand in a dry glass-ceilinged room, looking up through the water at people walking overhead. A simple, magical, profound piece that captures the essential spirit of this museum.
SANAA (Sejima and Nishizawa and Associates) is one of the world's most celebrated architectural partnerships. Their work — characterized by transparency, lightness and a profound sensitivity to human movement and experience — earned them the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2010. Other major works include the New Museum in New York, the Rolex Learning Center in Lausanne, and the Louvre-Lens in France.
For the 21st Century Museum, their goal was a building that belongs equally to the city and to art — one that has no "front" or "back," no primary entrance, no hierarchy of importance. The result is a building that the citizens of Kanazawa have adopted completely as their own public square.
Leandro Erlich — the museum's most beloved and photographed permanent installation.
James Turrell — a square aperture in the ceiling framing the changing sky in an octagonal chamber.
Olafur Eliasson — a circular walkway of colored glass atop the ARoS museum, recreated here temporarily.
Gerhard Richter — monumental abstract painting defining one of the museum's largest gallery spaces.
Felix Gonzalez-Torres — a carpet of wrapped candies whose weight equals that of his late partner.
Patrick Blanc — a living vertical garden growing on the museum's exterior wall, changing through the seasons.
1-2-1 Hirosaka, Kanazawa, Ishikawa 920-8509
10-min walk from Kanazawa Station
Bus: Hirosaka/Korinbo stop (multiple routes)